The French Inquisition

Being Belgian I've decided to compare the several European media in the past few weeks. The French, German and Belgian television have launched an extreme hate campaign against Rasmussen. Journalists kept repeating that Rasmussen had to be thrown out of the Tour. I thought: Fortunately the media can only dirty up someone's name, but they still can't play judge.
Today the media have played judge. Rasmussen has been thrown out of the Tour without evidence, without a right to defend himself. Cassani hasn't seen Rasmussen in Italy; he has heard someone (Rolf Sörensen) say that Rasmussen was in Italy.
Today a cyclist doesn't have democratic rights anymore. You're guilty if the French don't like you. ASO and the French, Belgian and German media have launched an extreme hate campaign against "Osama Bin Rasmussen, Public Enemy Number One". They ignored all facts, they ignored all rules. They just threw him out because they don't like him. Officially Rabobank threw him out itself, but that's a lie. Rabobank was behind Rasmussen, and was forced to throw him out. This will never be officially admitted.
If I were a cyclist, I would refuse to take part in races organized by the ASO. If the Tour has no cyclists, the Tour doesn't exist. All riders who continue the race without Rasmussen say: "I have no problem with a French Inquisition that ignores all democratic rules, that punishes riders without a right to defend themselves, without evidence, without a trial. I think it's OK when cyclists are treated this way."
Vinokourov, Moreni and Sinkewitz deserved to be excluded, because they had a positive tests. Rasmussen, Ullrich, Basso, Klöden, Kashechkin, Petacchi and many others have been excluded for no reason. They are victims of the French Inquisition.
I won't watch the Tour de France anymore. If Rasmussen is not allowed to start, I don't care who wins. Cycling has been killed, not by doping, but by the hysteric reaction to it. The French Inquisition has killed cycling.

 

Well let's see if Rasmussen takes legal action against his employers, for it was Rabobank who withdrew him from the Tour. If there is no evidence then Rasmussen will have his trial, in the civil courts, and will win it.

 

Funny how that works. You scheme and plot to avoid doping tests and then get thrown out of a race despite doing your best to lie about why you missed the tests. Sometimes life is so unfair.

 

Whether he was in Italy, or Mexico or wherever is academic.
Whether Sorensen saw him or didn't see him is acadmic.

Rasmussen failed to attend 4 tests.
That's why he's been thrown off the TDF.

Rabobank - the owners of the team -fired Rasmussen.
Rasmussen failed to attend 4 tests - he broke the rules.
The media didn't fire Rasmussen.

 

Im not sure that's correct L'man. I believe he has to have missed 3 tests by the one agency and we know he missed 2 each with differnt agencies

So legally speaking ....

 

OK.

There seems to be confusion as to how many tests Ras missed.
Missing one test, is missed one test too many.

I've no doubt that "legally speaking" will become the operative phrase.....
as is the case with all other doping cases ie. Hamilton/Landis/Basso/Ullrich/Virenque etc

 

Not true. He was fired and pulled from the tour by Rabo for misleading the team re: his whereabouts. What if he was really in Mexico?

I think Rabobank was pressured to dump him. Let's see how this plays out legally.

Rabobank being a dirty team (given what I know from a team insider) its all a bit rich.

Sponsors are just scrambling to do PR damage control and appear clean. The circus, however, goes on .....

 

The riders don't have a strong labor union defending their interests like football, baseball and basketball players do so they have to take whatever crap runs downhill from the race organizers and team owners.

 

Thats very true. You'd never see these type of crazy management decisions in any properly organized sport. No real drug testing either

 

Well you're not, and Rasmussen's team and the rest of the peloton went right on with Stage 17 without protest.

That tells you something about how they felt about Rasmussen and the way he was treated.

 

Exactly. On the one hand the well organized athletes have good pensions, better pay and benefits, procedures for handling disputes - but they've also made sure that drug testing is mostly an illusion that does only what's required to pacify the public.

 

+1. Thanks

 

What inquisition? Chicken not only failed to make his location known four times, he then lied about where he was on one of those occasions. Said he was in Mexico when he was seen in Italy. Failing to inform might be an oversight, but being deceptive is deliberate.

LA said it best - in this age of cell phones, blackberries, and iPhones, there is no excuse for not following the rule of making your location known.

 

He broke several rules, Ser.

The Danish Cycling Federation dismissed him from their setup because he missed their dope tests.
His employer fired him because he lied about why he missed the initial dope tests.
Either way, he was in contravention of the rules.

I accept the point that you make re Rabo : they probably moved on this after the pressure was turned up on Ras.
If Rabo were genuine, they would have moved sooner in my opinion.

 

Look. If Rasmussen was in Mexico, I am sure he would be waiving his passport all over the news.

 

When you live in a society, you need to save it.
Yesterday I hoped that teams have an agreement before the stage which could be : Rasmussen had a real bad days, he would had lost enough to be out of podium at least, and only Levi, Cadel or Sastre could win the TDF, Contador would be out because of the OP dark shadow.
But it seems that for this teams their short-time interest are more important than their futur.

 

He broke a contract which is a binding legal instrument. Unless there is some unreasonable language in this contract he is screwed.

 

He admitted to Rabobank he lied. That is why he was fired.

 

i cant even believe im replying to this crap but for christs sake, WHY ON EARTH would a rider of rasmussens calibur not show up for 4 consecutive doping tests RIGHT before the tour motherfucking day france if he wasnt hiding something?

he may have gotten away with it in 91, but this is farkin 2007. landis, ullrich, basso, and zabel, 3 legends and one amish dude all got taken down this past year.

knowing all this, if ras was actually clean, hed be the first mother fucker in line waiting to piss in a cup.

now we just have to wait and see if contador will get caught. looks like the victory may again go to perreiro when its all said and done.

 

In that case, you are going to need to throw a hell of a lot of riders out of the current tour.

That is what Rabo says. Here is what Rasmussen said to a reporter:

"He [Rabo manager Theo de Rooij] didnt say anything to anyone. Not even the director sportive was informed. It is a desperate mans work. He is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. My boss is mad."

"I was not in Italy. Not at all. This is the story of a man who thinks he recognized me. There is no a scread of proof. This is absurd. I don't understand anything. Its crazy."